Sunday, June 10, 2012

Even though this years Teva Mountain Games
didn't go the way I had planned, I was still very excited to be in Vail
again for one more year of pure excitement!

This
year both of my parents came out to watch and cheer me on. I did heaps
of runs on Homestake prior to the race on Thursday and I was feeling
really good. The water was really low this year so there were loads of
rocks everywhere to get stuck on.... or pinned.

The Teva Games have been really well known throughout the
industry because the pay out is huge and there is a lot of publicity
that comes with it.

Ending out the mank section of Homestake Creek.

The beginning of the waterfall section.

Left air wheel in a shallow hole in a composite boat!

I even made it into the newspaper!

So, anyways, the day of the race came and I
was nervous, as always, because I had won the race last year. I knew a
lot of people were watching me closely to see what my next move would
be. I had done about ten really clean runs up to this point and I had
confidence that I would do just as well on my race run.

I made it through the "mank" section and I was feeling really
good, then, I let my head get out of the game and suddenly I was pinned.
I was head up and in no danger but I was losing time quickly. I was
stuck there for about 30 seconds and finally got myself off of the pin
spot. I knew I had lost the race and that someone else would be taking
the top honors this year.

I learned a lot that day. I have been racing a lot in the last
six years and I don't mess up races very often. It is a lot harder
losing than it is winning.

Freestyle has never really been my forte
but somehow I always do kind of well in it. (the BV Pro rodeo for
example!) When we got to Vail there was literally no hole at all. It
took two days and lot of man power to make a hole for the rodeo. Note
the plywood on both sides of the hole and ropes attaching them, it was a
pretty amazing feat! But, my problems were just beginning. I was in a composite boat, in a really shallow hole, in really cold water. It was always interesting dropping into the hole.

In one of my practice rides I hit my head so hard that I almost
knocked myself out, I also hit my paddle on the rock so hard that my
wrist hurt. Needless to say, all of us in the eddy were trying to be
"careful" while also trying to do the biggest tricks we could.

Looping huge in the composite boat! Representing Liquid Logic to the world!!

Right air wheel during finals. You can see the bottom....

The finals in Vail is always my favorite
because its like a miniature stadium in there. With the people on the
streets and then the hotels with people hanging off of all of the
balconies, it's pretty awesome. I ended up in fourth but still got a bit
of a pay out, that was nice :-) Claire O'Hara had a huge ride, stomping
both of her phonix monkeys and doing a huge mcnasty, I guess there is a
reason she is the World Champion!!

I've
also gotta thank Shane Benedict for making an awesome composite boat
that didn't even break in Vail, even though I was trying my hardest....
if I can't break it... I don't think anyone can.

Also
huge thanks to Kokatat for the immense support in the last few months,
it's been amazing meet everyone that works for them and learning about
their company. Also, having gear that is warm, dry, and breathable is
life changing!! Check their gear out if you have never looked at their
stuff, lots of good things coming out of their company right now!

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Last winter, I had to choose between going to Physician Assistant
school in Idaho or Colorado, and after weeks of deliberation and angst, I
chose Colorado, my home state. To see what I was missing, I took a
trip to Idaho this Spring with four fun female kayaker friends.
Needless to say, I had a severe case of regret over not choosing the PA
program in Idaho simply for the quality of kayaking. It was that
good!

So, I sort of thought I knew this already, but it
turns out you don't really know until you jump right in, especially if
you live in a state where you often paddle on 150 cfs or less: big water
is BIGGER from your boat than from the road. After a fifteen hour
drive, we got out of the car at the South Fork of the Payette. It was
pretty high, but after looking at the rapids in the Staircase section,
we put on our gear with the attitude that it would be a fun warmup run.
Immediately after entering the first wave train, which looked so mild
from the road, we realized that we couldn't power through things like we
could at home. We had to use more finesse and set up for our lines much
further ahead of time. We got out to scout the biggest rapids again,
at river level, and this time we got nervous, knowing which holes and
waves would be friendly and which would flip us for sure. But my
Stomper performed better than I ever could have imagined, and I styled
the lines. I knew I loved it in the low-volume creeks back home, but I
loved it more for keeping me on-line in powerful, exploding water.
After
a few runs on the Staircase, we got used to the disconnect between what
we were seeing from the road and what we felt when we got in our
boats. We continued northward to the South Fork of the Clearwater, the
Lochsa, and finally to the Selway, where to my surprise, and thanks to
the Stomper, I felt in control in 24,000 cfs.

I am happy to report that I moved to Denver from
Southwestern Colorado last week, started PA school yesterday, and already had one of the best days of paddling of my season thus far
on the Big South and the Poudre, despite the low water here on the front range, just two hours or so from my new home.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

So, after a heinous drive across Kansas, totally solo (the only things to talk to were the bugs on my windscreen) I made it to Colorado. Nothing exciting happened during the drive, thankfully, but when I got to Buena Vista I realized really how low the water was this year. This is a vast difference between the 175% snow pack they had last year and the 70% snow pack that they have this year.

Looping the very light composite boat

Shane had surprised me with a brand spankin new composite boat just in time for me to make the trek west. Its not a biscuit and it paddles like nothing I have ever paddled before. But I can say one thing, I could do some massive loops in it!!

Jordan going for a space godzilla

Jordan did super well, as always, in both C-1 and K-1 juniors. He was flying just as high as I was and loving the light boat. The feature was a tad small this year.... but we all made it work.

Finals ride, huge space godzilla

Going into finals I was second behind Ruth Gordon, who is a past world champion and Claire O'hara was in fourth who is the present world champion. My first ride I did everything I could in the feature within the first 30 seconds, a massive loop, a huge space godzilla, another space godzilla, and some spins. I scored my highest ride of my life which was a 360 and that put me really comfortably in first place!!

My sparkly masterpiece by Shane Benedict

Claire had an awesome second ride and she was getting really close to getting her McNasty's. She ended up tieing me for first place. I was stoked to be able to know that I could keep up with these two powerhouses of freestyle.

Winner!!!

In the end, the judges averaged out our Claire and I's scores and I had won the rodeo. It was my first ever pro rodeo that I had won in my whole life!!! I was super happy to have been able to share the eddy with all the awesome people in Buena Vista Colorado and will be sure to come back next year!!